Everything You Need to Know About Organic SEO Singapore

What is Organic SEO and Why is it Important for Your Business?

Organic SEO. For those new to the term, it might sound like a process that unfolds with little human intervention, but the reality is quite different: it requires deliberate effort and effective strategy to generate leads, build social currency and drive sustainable growth.

But what exactly is organic SEO? Why is it so valuable? And how can you cultivate it effectively? Read on as we delve into what organic SEO involves, the benefits it offers, as well as practical tips to rank higher.

What is Organic SEO?

Organic SEO Singapore, quite simply, is a process by which a website improves in rankings on unpaid search engine results. For context, search engines like Google, typically display two types of results in response to a user’s search query: paid results (which often appear at the top and bottom) and organic results. Organic results, as Ahrefs, one of the leading SEO software tools, rightly puts it, “cannot be bought or influenced by advertisers; they are results that search engines deem as most relevant to a user’s search query.”

How Does Organic SEO Work?

Achieving success with organic SEO requires a comprehensive approach that includes on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO. Let’s break down these key components:

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO, as the name suggests, involves, optimising elements on your website to improve the user experience—whether it’s in helping them find relevant content that addresses their needs or making your site easier to navigate—and to enable search engines to crawl and index your page and ultimately match search queries with relevant results more effectively.

Some of the common optimisations associated with on-page SEO include, keyword research, enhancing visual content, structured markup (which is essentially “marking up” website code so Google can better understand elements of your content), internal linking, improving site speed and more.

Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO, stands in contrast to on-page SEO, comprising actions taken outside of your website. The goal here is to add credibility, relevance, trustworthiness, and authority to your domain. Why is this important? Because, search engines like Google, don’t just use what is present on your website to rank, rather the entire web present, from backlinks pointing to your site to social media mentions and external reviews, to determine how authoritative and relevant your website is compared to others.

Bearing that in mind, some of the strategies involved in off-page SEO include link building, social media engagement, local SEO (optimising content for local search results) and content marketing.

Read More: Introduction to SEO

Technical SEO

Technical SEO involves actions that aren’t always visible, and generally intended to help search engines find, crawl, understand, and index your pages—the goal being to increase visibility and rankings on SERPs. Some of the common tasks associated with technical SEO include, improving page load speed, ensuring mobile-friendliness, fixing crawl errors, and creating a well-structured sitemap.

How Long Does it Take to See Results

Results are the bread and butter of any marketer worth their salt, because they are the clearest indicators of success. Through results, the great marketer assesses effectiveness of campaigns, measures return on investment, and refines strategies based on actual performance.

The demand for quick results can make SEO frustrating for some, as achieving any meaningful results with organic SEO takes time. Maile Ohye, Developer Programs Tech Lead at Google, explains, “In most cases, SEOs need four months to a year to help your business first implement improvements and then see potential benefit.”

This tracks, for several reasons, including, but not limited to, the time it takes to build a strong backlink profile, domain history (older domains typically perform better than younger domains), competition—because other businesses in your industry are unlikely to be resting on their laurels, and the complex nature of search engine algorithms. Execution plays a big role in the time it takes to rank highly; with a good strategy, half the battle is won.

Why Should You Care About Organic SEO?

Investing time and resources in organic SEO depends on the nature of your business and goals. However, more often than not, the benefits it brings to your business are significant enough to make it a worthwhile investment. Below are some of the reasons to invest in organic SEO.

1. Sustainable Growth

You might have heard this before, online or through word-of-mouth testimonies, but one of the primary reasons to invest in organic SEO is because it’s sustainable.

It is sustainable in the sense that, unlike search engine marketing (SEM), which demands continuous investment, and constant adjustments to maintain visibility, organic SEO delivers long-term results without requiring an ongoing influx of funds.

That is not to say that no maintenance is involved, on the contrary, the SEO landscape is ever changing, and keeping abreast of these changes and adjusting accordingly is vital. Simply that once organic SEO is implemented, it can generate traffic without repeated spending to sustain visibility.

2. Cost-Effective Lead Generation

The same reasons why organic SEO is sustainable are the same reasons why it’s cost-effective. Yes, the initial investment can be substantial, but, over time, if executed correctly, organic SEO can deliver a consistent flow of traffic, high-quality leads, or sales (depending on your business’s objectives) without the ongoing costs associated with SEM.

3. Brand Awareness

In a society dominated by digital interactions, where consumers rely on search engines for information, shopping, or community, establishing a digital presence becomes vital for building visibility and awareness. Even if users don’t click on your link, repeated exposure reinforces your brand’s presence, leading to greater consideration of your products or services over time.

4. Credibility

Did you know that 75% of users never scroll past the first page? Part of why this is the case, is that users often perceive organic results on the first page as more credible and authoritative. The idea is that if Google is ranking this page so highly, it must have something worthwhile to offer. And if your business is perceived as credible, as an entity that delivers on its promises, it is more likely to convert potential visitors into paying customers.

5. Competitive Edge

On any given day, minute, or even second, users are actively searching on search engines, seeking information, products, or services to fulfil their needs. While Google doesn’t share its search volume data, estimates from established platforms like Hubspot, suggest that the search engine processes approximately 99,000 search queries every second, which translates to about 8.5 billion searches per day.

In countries with a high internet penetration rate like Singapore, where over 96 percent of the population are using the internet to find products or information, organic SEO becomes vital for capturing traffic and customers. Often, the higher the ranking the better the results.

Quick Tips on Ranking Higher

We highly recommend engaging the services of established digital marketing agencies to help build your organic presence. For example, at Rogue Digital, our team is equipped with the tools, skills and experience to help businesses grow in search rankings. That being said, there are a few things that you can do to improve your website’s organic rankings.

1. Backlinks

One of the best tips we can possibly recommend for ranking higher is building backlinks. As mentioned in the off-page section above, they play a vital role in adding credibility, relevance, trustworthiness, and authority to your domain.

In fact, according to Google’s Andrey Lipattsev, they are one of the top ranking factors. Bear in mind that not all backlinks are equal; to quote Joshua Hardwick from Ahrefs, “some move the needle more than others.”

Pro Tip: Analyse backlink profiles from top-ranking competitors to identify potential sources to acquire impactful backlinks.

2. Relevance

Relevance is a crucial but often neglected element, with an outsized impact on the performance of your organic search campaign. Think of it this way: if your content doesn’t align with your keyword search intent, how can your customers find you?

Let’s take “best running shoes for flat feet” as an example; here, your goal should be to create content that matches user expectations, whether it’s a list or reviews of your best running shoes for people with flat feet, rather than general information about running shoes.

3. Mobile Friendliness

In 2015, Google published an update that aimed to boost mobile friendly pages in search results. In 2018, it even adopted a mobile-first indexing to provide users on phones with the best experience—which is especially relevant in Singapore, given that 97 percent aged 18 and above own a smartphone.

Today, no single page experience like mobile-friendliness determines ranking single handedly, however, mobile usability is still a ranking factor and we highly recommend improving performance of your website for those accessing it from mobile devices.

4. Update Your Content Regularly

Ordinarily we’d suggest creating high quality content, and while that still remains true and vital, all too often we see websites relying on old content to maintain and even grow their rankings.

Refreshing your content— that is to say, removing unhelpful content especially if it fails to meet user’s expectations, combining multiple pages if they cover the same topic into one meaningful resource, and even improving if a page has potential to generate significant traffic—can significantly boost your organic rankings.

Common Challenges Faced with Organic SEO

Organic SEO, despite its many significant advantages, presents unique difficulties that may discourage businesses looking to grow their search presence organically. Understanding these challenges and how to address them effectively can help sustain long-term growth.

Stiff Competition

Stiff competition is one of the most common challenges of organic SEO. Increasingly more businesses are employing digital marketing strategies—often with the help of expert consultants—to widen their market reach, making it more difficult to secure the top spots for valuable keywords in search results.

Growing in rank or staying ahead is possible with the right approach. For example, monitoring your competitors’ activities regularly, using tools such as Google Looker Studio Integration and Ahrefs Site Explore, can provide insights into their content strategies, link building efforts, and keyword performance. By leveraging these insights, businesses can refine their approach to maintain a competitive edge.

Google Algorithm Updates

It’s no secret that Google and other search engines often update their algorithms to improve the quality of search results. These changes can have a significant impact on a website’s performance, affecting visibility, organic traffic, or sales. Recovery can be challenging, with some websites struggling to regain their previous rankings.

There are a few ways to mitigate the impact of algorithm updates, including following SEO best practices and avoiding black hat tactics. It also helps to keep updated on the latest SEO developments by following reliable and reputable sources such as Search Engine Journal and Search Engine Land.

AI-Based Search

The emergence of artificial intelligence is poised to have a significant impact on the SEO landscape. For example, at present, Google is increasingly providing answers in search results, based on several sources. The direct result of this development is reduced traffic and zero-click searches.

There are a couple of ways to address the impact of AI overviews, the first being to focus on providing unique value and simply making your website the best it can be.

Securing Buy-In for Internal Stakeholders

Organic SEO is a long-term commitment, of that, there is little doubt. And, it is this quality that makes it difficult to secure buy-in from internal stakeholders cautious of risk or expecting immediate results.

Communicating the benefits of SEO using metrics such as traffic growth, search rankings, and traffic value, can help convey value in a way that can resonate with key decision-makers. The goal here is to demonstrate the long-term opportunity cost, or to be more specific, the time, effort, and potential gains lost when organic SEO is overlooked.

SEO Trends to Keep an Eye On

SEO continues to evolve, and by keeping up to date with the latest trends, businesses can more effectively maintain and improve search rankings. From user signals to emerging alternative search platforms, below are a few SEO trends to keep an eye on.

User Signals

Google, in one of the biggest antitrust cases in recent decades, was compelled to reveal patents that their search algorithms use. As it turns out, the search engine relies heavily on user signals to rank websites. More to the point, Google is much better at understanding how users feel about your content than they are at understanding what your content is about.

What does this mean for SEO? In short, it means that optimising for user engagement and satisfaction is becoming increasingly important to maintain and grow search ranks. We recommend crafting valuable content that aligns with user intent; adding visual elements like infographics and videos that take time to consume; monitoring engagement metrics like time on page or bounce rate to ensure that your website meets the needs of your visitors.

Search Intent

We’ve talked about search intent repeatedly throughout this article, emphasising why it’s important and why your business should care to ensure that optimisations align with intent. And it’s for a good reason. In fact, the recent quality rating guidelines, released in March 2024 by Google, stress the importance of search intent.

Pages that don’t match intent have a strong likelihood of resulting in bounce rates, which is an indication to Google that the page’s content doesn’t meet user expectations. To improve alignment with search intent, we recommend assessing the keywords you target to understand exactly what users want.

Alternative Searches

Alternative search platforms such as AI-Chatbots and TikTok are gaining popularity. Being visual or conversational search experiences, they appeal to specific demographics or queries. Are these search engines going to replace traditional search engines like Google? Not anytime soon; neither can match the depth or authority of a search engine.

However, for businesses looking to stay on top of search trends, integrating schema markup to help Google contextualise your content to emulate these search experiences, optimising for social media, and creating content that resonates with the audiences of these platforms can help strengthen competitive advantage.

Local Searches Become More Mature

As more and more consumers turn to the internet to find nearby businesses, standing out in local searches becomes more important than ever. According to Google, of the 76% of users who conducted a local search, 28% resulted in a purchase.

Local search results are becoming more sophisticated in an effort, on the part of search engines, to deliver a richer experience. Businesses looking to improve local SEO should consider ensuring that their Google Business Profile is not only updated but also optimised with relevant keywords and photos, business hours, and compelling copy. It also helps to encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews to improve credibility and attract more local traffic.

Final Thoughts

Do you need sustainable growth in today’s digital landscape, if so, organic SEO is one of the best ways to go. Yes, it might take some time, and might require resources and expertise, but what you get in return is improved visibility and steady stream of traffic, both of which are valuable to businesses.

Rogue Digital is a full-service digital marketing agency; we provide a wide range of services including SEO, SEM, Social Media Marketing, Content Writing, Creative Design, Website Design & Hosting as well as Display & Video Advertising.

Reach out to us for a free consultation or to learn how we can help your business achieve its marketing goals.